The Army base commander at Fort Meade is preparing for the effects of sequestration, and he said he's not happy with the thought of having to send out furlough notices to hundreds of civilians who work at the Anne Arundel County Army post.

A recent study by Wells Fargo shows Maryland is one of the states that could be most affected by sequestration due to the number of defense jobs in the state, and that has many officials worried about what it could do to the work force.

At the Anne Arundel County Army post, hundreds of civilian workers will still be furloughed and be forced to take a weekly 20 percent pay cut, but Fort Meade Col. Ed Rothstein, the top commander at the post, told 11 News that the furloughs will be less harsh than first reported.

With Congress' passage of the government-funding resolution, the Pentagon announced the number of furlough days for Department of Defense civilian employees will be reduced from 22 days to 14 days, and those furloughs will not start in mid-April as once thought.

"There's still a lot of stress on the workforce, and they're planning and have to start looking, probably in June, at how they'll start budgeting themselves and their families," Rothstein said.

The colonel also reported that the 900 civilians he was going to furlough -- those who keep the base operating on a daily basis -- will most likely be reduced, namely due to staff at child care centers being exempt.

"It puts me in a better mood because it gives me more time to plan. It gives me more time to communicate to my workforce and the community -- those that are inside the fence line -- the services that are either going to be curtailed or shut down," Rothstein said.

He said that could include Fort Meade's library and museum, as well as delaying maintenance of roads and buildings across the post. They are the kinds of decisions Rothstein could be making more of in the near future.

The changes come as President Barack Obama and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said they would take pay cuts to show their support for furloughed federal workers. Hagel on Wednesday signaled the potential harm sequester cuts would have on military budgets for years to come.

"Cuts will fall heavily on maintenance and training, which further erodes the readiness of the force and will be costly to regain in the future," the defense secretary said.

"You know the old adage of doing more with less. We've got to own up to doing less with less," Rothstein said.

Fort Meade is also home to tens of thousands of separate civilian defense and intelligence workers. At this point, it's unclear how many of those people could be furloughed.

The Obama administration will unveil a major climate change plan Monday aimed at a large reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from the nation's coal-burning power plants, a senior administration official told CNN.